1This is the message that the Lord revealed to the prophet Habakkuk.

Habakkuk Complains of Injustice

2O Lord, how long must I call for help before you listen, before you save us from violence? 3Why do you make me see such trouble? How can you stand to look on such wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are all around me, and there is fighting and quarreling everywhere. 4The law is weak and useless, and justice is never done. Evil people get the better of the righteous, and so justice is perverted.

The Lord's Reply

5 Then the Lord said to his people, “Keep watching the nations around you, and you will be astonished at what you see. I am going to do something that you will not believe when you hear about it. 6 I am bringing the Babylonians to power, those fierce, restless people. They are marching out across the world to conquer other lands. 7They spread fear and terror, and in their pride they are a law to themselves.

8“Their horses are faster than leopards, fiercer than hungry wolves. Their cavalry troops come riding from distant lands; their horses paw the ground. They come swooping down like eagles attacking their prey.

9“Their armies advance in violent conquest, and everyone is terrified as they approach.+ Their captives are as numerous as grains of sand. 10They treat kings with contempt and laugh at high officials. No fortress can stop them—they pile up earth against it and capture it. 11Then they sweep on like the wind and are gone, these men whose power is their god.”

Habakkuk Complains to the Lord Again

12Lord, from the very beginning you are God. You are my God, holy and eternal. Lord, my God and protector, you have chosen the Babylonians and made them strong so that they can punish us. 13But how can you stand these treacherous, evil men? Your eyes are too holy to look at evil, and you cannot stand the sight of people doing wrong. So why are you silent while they destroy people who are more righteous than they are?

14How can you treat people like fish or like a swarm of insects that have no ruler to direct them? 15The Babylonians catch people with hooks, as though they were fish. They drag them off in nets and shout for joy over their catch! 16They even worship their nets and offer sacrifices to them, because their nets provide them with the best of everything.

17Are they going to use their swords forever and keep on destroying nations without mercy?